Rare Metals
Enhanced spin diffusion length by suppressing spin‐flip scattering in lateral spin valves
Rare Metals · 34, 156-159 (2015)
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Introduction
Nonlocal measurements in lateral spin valves probe silver strips with different injector–detector separations. Adding an MgO cap enhances the spin-accumulation signal and increases the inferred spin-diffusion length.
A closer reading
The discriminating observation is how the signal decays with distance, rather than a single device's voltage. Reduced spin-flip scattering at the surface is a proposed explanation for the cap's effect; the diffusion length is inferred from a series of devices.